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International backing for Palestine’s causes is growing, including the film industry, where numerous of film workers have joined a pledge to boycott Israel’s cinema organizations deemed complicit in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, and high-profile celebrities are supporting films that focus on the Palestinian lived reality.

Yet, Palestinian movies still struggle to obtain release and gain exposure – despite a major Academy Awards victory last year. To showcase the Palestinian rich heritage of cinema, we asked leading Palestinian film-makers and entertainers to share their favorite Palestinian movies.

‘By the End, I Was Moved to Tears’: Mo Amer on All That’s Left Of You

Cherien Dabis’s film All That’s Left of You, which debuted this year at the Sundance Film Festival, is a rare cinematic work, unflinching and memorable. By portraying the story of a single Palestinian family, from its origins in pre-1948 the city of Jaffa through generations of displacement, it does not just recount a tale – it honors a legacy.

The visuals are vivid and transportive. Every shot feels intentional, every frame a memory – the orange groves of Jaffa, the roads of Nablus, the alienation of exile. The performances are powerful, highlighting the director’s remarkable range alongside three generations of the Bakris – the family of performers most associated with Palestinian cinema. They are complex, restrained and heartbreakingly real.

The most striking aspect is how smoothly the movie shifts between time periods without ever losing its narrative thread. Every period of the Palestinian people’s story is brought to life with stunning detail, both in imagery and emotionally. The filmmaking is skillful in that way, guiding you through time with precision and sensitivity.

In the final moments, I was moved to tears. All That’s Left of You isn’t just about the history, it’s about the invisible manners it shapes who we are. It’s a film that lingers – not because of spectacle, but because of honesty.

• Mo Amer is a Palestinian American actor and comedian and the creator of a well-known streaming series.

‘A Groundbreaking Masterpiece’: Cherien Dabis on Divine Intervention

A sunglasses-clad Palestinian female defiantly struts through a checkpoint. Israel’s troops watch, weapons raised, confused. Her presence disarms them and brings the guard tower crashing down. It’s an iconic scene from director Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention that has remained in my mind ever since I initially watched the film. I was a second-year graduate cinema student at a university when it premiered in the United States in the early 2000s. I remember being amazed by its impact, its resistance, and its pure boldness.

During an era when the majority of Palestinian cinema leaned toward the solemn or tragic, the director created a fresh direction. Through satire, straight-faced performance, and almost silent storytelling, he captured the surreal ridiculousness of life under occupation. Playing the movie’s silent protagonist personally, he placed his own perspective at the heart of the story. That decision felt revolutionary. His performance was composed and understated, which only heightened the tension all around him.

Divine Intervention is both deeply personal and highly political. Its visual language is global, yet grounded in the fractured reality of Palestinian identity. Suleiman transforms separation, displacement and resistance into something approaching art. The result is touching, surreal, at times funny and always painfully honest.

There existed nothing remotely like it in Palestinian cinema at the period. There still isn’t. It continues to be, for me, the most innovative and imaginative Palestinian-made film ever created.

• Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian-American director, writer, producer and actress, whose latest film is a selected submission for the Academy Awards.

‘A Remarkable New Voice’: Hany Abu Assad on To a Land Unknown

For me, a outstanding film needs to do two things. It needs to provide an journey that’s unfamiliar, feeling and intelligent. It needs to offer me an element I’ve been missing – a point of view that challenges my views, a method to consider topics outside my own life, a window to a different time and place. In short, I need to feel enlightened, emotionally and in mind.

Additionally, it needs to move me with its skill. A talent that is not focused trying to impress but is used to open my eyes to an idea deeper.

The movie To a Land Unknown, which was launched recently, is precisely this kind of film. Created by Mahdi Fleifel, it is a tale about a pair of Palestinian companions looking for better lives as displaced persons in Greece.

To a Land Unknown allowed me to experience what it’s like to be a at-risk migrant, in a strange country, where all factors works in opposition to your efforts to escape the ghetto. It demonstrated me that in certain situations, even when circumstances outside your influence conspire to hinder you, you personally can nonetheless turn into your own biggest obstacle. And its dance between story and visual form astonished me in its craft.

In To a Land Unknown, Palestine has found a talent that will support its mission without spilling a single drop of violence.

• Hany Abu-Assad is a Palestinian-Dutch director, writer and two-time Oscar nominee for his acclaimed films.

‘It Shows Israel Views Even Cows as a Threat’: Basel Adra on The Wanted 18

Among my most loved Palestinian films is The Wanted 18. It recounts the story of Palestinians in Beit Sahour, a village near the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, during the first intifada of the 1980s. It documents their attempt to {